Lisa Berkman to speak on “What Shapes Health”

On Tuesday, March 3, Lisa Berkman will be part of a panel discussion on “What Shapes Health?” This event, co-hosted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and NPR, will be webcast live at 12:30 pm EST. In addition to providing experts’ perspectives on what factors impact health, the panel will look at the public’s perception of who gets sick and why.

Air pollution in India reducing life expectancy for 660 million by 3.2 years

Rohini Pande, PhD, director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Evidence for Policy Design and Harvard Pop Center faculty member, is co-author of a special article published in Economic & Political Weekly that reveals the deadly impact of the air quality for 660 million residents in India, and outlines government policies that could help to reduce pollution and increase life expectancy. The findings of the study are explored in this vox.com article.

Tackling child obesity; a call to protect children from lure of sedentary activities & nutrient-poor diet

Harvard Pop Center faculty member and professor of the practice of health sociology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Steven Gortmaker, PhD, is co-author of a study, one of a six-part series devoted to obesity in The Lancet, that calls for policies designed to encourage a nutrient-rich diet and physical activity for children and adolescents.

How can global obesity epidemic be reversed? A call for “smart food policies.”

Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar program alumna and current Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty member Christina Roberto, PhD, is lead author of a paper that is one in a six-part series devoted to obesity in The Lancet. The paper has received much attention in the press including articles in Harvard Gazette, reuters.com, FoxNews, skynews, livescience, medicalnewstoday, The Toronto Star, Huffington Post, and medicalXpress. Learn more from…

Can we predict how long phase of menopausal hot flashes & night sweats will last?

Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar alumna Rebecca Thurston, PhD, is co-author of a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine that found that more than half of the women in the study who experienced frequent vasomotor symptoms (VMS) – which include hot flashes and night sweats – experienced these symptoms for more than 7 years. African American women reported the longest duration of symptoms, compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Women…

Harvard RWJF HSS program alumni edit special edition of Social Science & Medicine journal

Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar alumni Jennifer Karas Montez, PhD, and Esther Friedman, PhD, are editors of a special issue of Social Science & Medicine entitled “Educational Attainment and Adult Health: Contextualizing Causality.” Montez and Friedman wrote the introduction to the special issue, Pop Center faculty member David Cutler, PhD, is lead author on a study on the protective effect of education for cohorts graduating in bad times, and…

Course designed to help prevent perinatal depressive symptoms looks to be helpful

Harvard RWJF Health & Society Scholar alumna Tamar Mendelson, PhD, is co-author of a study published in Maternal and Child Health Journal that evaluates the results of a course, Mothers and Babies, designed to help prevent perinatal depression in high risk women by teaching them mood-regulation skills.

Better work-life balance can contribute to better sleep

Harvard Pop Center faculty member Orfeu Buxton was quoted in this Boston Globe article and in this article in Entrepreneur on the role that a healthy work-life balance can have on people’s sleep. Buxton, along with Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman and other Work, Family & Health Network researchers, recently published their findings in the journal Sleep Health.

Rose Frisch, 1918-2015

Longtime Pop Center scientist Rose Frisch passed away on January 30th at age 96. She will be fondly remembered and deeply missed. Learn more about her contribution to women’s fertility issues in this Harvard Chan School featured news story. Her obituary appeared in yesterday’s New York Times.